Waters thrilling Philip Island round sets up for Championship finale

Josh Waters will enter the final round of the 2012 Australian Superbike Championship with a 19.5-point advantage after scoring second position at Phillip Island’s penultimate weekend of action on 17-19 August.

Fresh from a standout performance at the Suzuka 8 Hours in Japan, Waters put forward a consistent effort aboard the Team Suzuki GSX-R1000, and is now in the box seat to secure his second career Australian Superbike title.

After qualifying fourth in mixed conditions, Waters finished the opening 12-lap race in second, just 1.710 seconds in arrears of title rival Wayne Maxwell. He backed that result up in race two, which was reduced to 10 laps following an opening lap incident that caused a race stoppage. The results don't tell the tale of the close racing with Waters leading both races and only giving up the lead under battle conditions.

“The weekend was good for me, but obviously would have been better if we could have won the races,” Waters explained. “It was tough between myself and Wayne, but near the end my bike was moving around quite a bit so I decided to try and play it smart for the championship.

“I want to qualify and do well in both races at Queensland. I just need to try hard though, if I do that, then it should all be good and will hopefully go to plan for myself and Team Suzuki.”